Vocational Students and Civic Engagement : A Quantitative Study on Teaching, Participation and democratic engagement

This thesis explores how current and former students in Swedish uppersecondary vocational programmes define and express civic and political interest, and how their engagement manifests in both everyday and conventional forms. The purpose of this study was to investigate how current and former students from vocational programs perceive and express civic engagement, especially in the form of everyday or informal forms of participation, and how this can be related to their experience of democratic competence and the teaching of civics.A quantitive survey of 119 respondents was administered. Items covered conventional political activities, everyday engagement, perceived internal and external political efficacy, collective identity and perceived school support. Responses were combined into seven indices, allowing comparisons across gender- and age-based sub-groups. The analysis draws on Robert Dahls democratic participation criteria, Chantal Mouffes concept of the political, and Katrin Ubas distinction between internal and external political efficacy. Findings reveal a clear, though selective interest in social issues and comparatively high internal political efficacy. Nevertheless, both everyday engagement and especially conventional participation remain low. External efficacy, the belief that decision-makers listen is significantly weaker than internal efficacy, producing a “trust gap” between feeling capable of acting and believing that action matters. Women aged 20 and above score highest on the political interest, collective identity and system trust, the lowest political self-confidence is found among younger women. School is perceived as only moderately supportive; it conveys knowledge but does not consistently provide authentic experiences of influence. The thesis concludes that vocational students represent an under-used democratic resource. To convert latent engagement into action, schools and traditional democratic contexts should create additional arenas in which students see their perspectives acknowledged and translated into tangible outcomes.